Opticians

I went to the opticians earlier today, and it's always a weird experience. I often wonder whether it's all just a joke as they put silly looking glasses on you, switch lights on and off and shine a torch into your eyes. It's kinda fun, and today was the first time I got to play the game where you have to put on an eye patch, look into this big empty sphere and click a button whenever you see a flash of white light. I think I got a hi-score with my right eye but I'm not sure about my left eye.

The recording of my band's album is currently going well. I've recorded the drums for all the tracks and we're onto bass now. Recording is pretty stressful, as it can take ages to get a good take - there are always areas for improvement. It's fun though, hanging out and making music with your friends.

University is drawing closer. I'm looking forward to it a lot now. I just hope I can manage to earn enough money to buy stuff, and that living at home won't make it boring.

University

Oh yeah, I got better-than-I-expected results in my A2 levels on Thursday, which means that I got into Sheffield University. Looking forward to studying Japanese and university life a lot, even though I will be living at home.

Working

I now have a job, kinda. Today I worked in a coffee shop in town after one of my mum's work colleagues asked me to fill in. It's nothing regular, but at least when they need me I'll be earning some money. It was fun, as I wasn't washing pots much, but making ice creams cones for people, which is a very important task.

Tomorrow my band starts to record our first album. We did a demo earlier this year, but this is going to be a 10 track album. It should be hard work (recording drums is quite hard and can really hurt your ears when you're listening to a series of regular clicks for hours), but, hopefully, worth it. I suppose I'm glad in a way that I don't have a regular job yet, as it would mean I wouldn't be able to record this album.

We're attempting to record it all for free by borrowing equipment. It's kinda cheeky, but asking people to borrow stuff is much easier than paying £200 a day or whatever.

I'm a journalist

I recently wrote an article for the video game music site Game Music 4 All. It's called Video Game Music and It's Outside Effect and can be found here.

Today

Something good and something bad happened today. I had my first driving test today, and I failed, majorly. I failed within the first two minutes. At least I'll know how to approach the test next time. It just all costs lots of money.

The good thing was that I managed to swap my DS Lite. Because it had a dead pixel!! Those things drive me crazy. And even after I got the DS out to check in the shop. The guy at Gamestation was cool and understood my situation. It'd be cool if all games shops were as understanding. Hopefully this new DS is OK, and I won't find any when I'm playing with it later.

I'm also going to watch a football match tonight - Sheffield Wednesday vs. Luton Town I believe. For some reason I just felt like going to watch the match tonight, and my dad had a free ticket.

My DS Lite

I've just bought my DS Lite and it's upstairs charging. I got a surprise bonus which appeared in my bank account around a week ago and I decided to spend it on a new DS. I got the black version (exclusive to Europe) and it's a thing of beauty.

I've had problems with dead pixels before, so before buying my Lite I wanted to check the console for any dead pixels. I asked in one games shop and they wouldn't; they said they couldn't open the box before sale. I asked in another - Gamestation - and they were fine with it. I haven't really bought anything video game related for a while, but this experience reaffirmed my faith with Gamestation. I went through a stage where I didn't like them too much, but they're often the cheapest store around, and they threw in a game with the DS (Marvel Nemesis: Rise of the Imperfects, which doesn't look that good, so I might return it).

I'm not as excited as I usually am about a new console. I suppose it's because I've already had a DS, and although the update from the regular DS is cool, it's still basically the same machine as before. Or maybe it's because I'm growing up. We'll see when the Wii comes out. In fact, the Wii is one of the reasons I've bought a new DS. I did wonder whether to buy a normal DS, a GBA SP or even whether to buy a handheld console at all, but the fact that my Lite (or any DS) will be able to interact with the Wii is one of the reasons I went for it. Still, it's an amazing machine in it's own right, and really has changed gaming, introducing those groups who aren't normally interested in video games.

The console makes handheld gaming so easy, especially where multiplayer is concerned - no wires! I love the concept that if you have your DS with you it's so easy to play against another DS owner you may have never met before. I knew I couldn't miss out on these kind of opportunities, especially as I'm starting university this autumn.

I just hope that I don't have a problem with the hinge cracking, which seems to be a problem for the Lite, although it doesn't seem to affect the black model. Also, the exterior is very shiny, and so there is the possibility of scratching. But all in all, I look forward to having large amounts of fun with my new DS.